The Real Boy Who Lived
by kb0
Summary: If Sirius and James were peers (and the Malfoys too), shouldn't we assume their families were set up somewhat similarly? (I don't mean beliefs.) A oneshot with J/L.


**Title:** The Real Boy-Who-Lived  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Summary:** If Sirius and James were peers (and the Malfoys too), shouldn't we assume their families were set up somewhat similarly? (I don't mean beliefs.)

(A/N: Here's a fun little thing that hit me recently as a way to play with the prophecy. Thanks to "djpotter" for beta'ing this.)

**The Real Boy-Who-Lived**

James and Lily settled in for the night after Harry had been put to bed for the third time that evening.

"How much longer do you think this will last?" Lily asked quietly in darkness of their bedroom with more than a hint of desperation.

"You're the mother. Aren't you supposed to know children better than me?" he said with a slightly teasing tone.

"Not _that_, you prat," she said with some exasperation before turning serious again. "I mean the war. I know we've only been in hiding for about a month, but I'm already tired of it and I haven't heard any good news lately."

James sighed softly and after a little fumbling found her hand. "I don't know, my love. Sirius said this morning that the news still doesn't sound good. Come closer," he urged her. She moved over and laid her head on his shoulder as he put his arm around her. They tried to go to sleep and hoped tomorrow would bring better news.

A few minutes later, an alarm went off, causing them both to roll over and grab their wands. While James donned his glasses, Lily hurried over to the window. "It's _HIM_! Peter betrayed us!"

"Grab Harry and get away! I'll delay him and join you at Sirius's!" he said as he sprinted out the bedroom door and down the stairs.

The front door blew in, the shards and splinters just missing James as they flew by. He immediately started transfiguring whatever he saw as barriers and animals to help him. Voldemort just banished them back at James knocking him around. The second James had to pause to recover his balance, Voldemort cast a Killing Curse. A small table and several other items jumped in the way at the last moment and exploded into more fragments, but Voldemort merely cast a second Killing Curse. He didn't see it hit James Potter because of the debris in the air, but the young man was tossed back against the wall behind him and slid down it.

Walking over, Voldemort saw James Potter in a crumpled position facing the wall and his chest wasn't moving. Satisfied, he smiled ever so slightly and moved to go upstairs, never noticing the small scurrying movement in the corner.

At the top of the stairs, he found two open doors and one that was closed. As he had the front door, he blasted the closed door open, remnants of it hitting a shield of some kind but also taking down the protective barrier. There stood Lily Potter in her nightgown in front of a crib with a baby.

"Move aside silly girl. I only want the boy." The two of them were close, despite the fact that he still stood in the hallway.

"No! You can't have Harry. Take me if you must, but not Harry!" Lily cried as she hoped her last spell worked as it should.

"If you insist," he said when she didn't move.

As he raised his wand to kill the woman, a small voice squeaked, "NO! YOU MUST NOT HURT MISTRESS!"

Voldemort looked down and saw what must be a very young house-elf with blood slowly running down the side of his head. Before he could bring his wand around, the young elf shoved both of his hands forward and Voldemort went flying backwards swiftly over and down the stairs, hitting his head on the bottom tread before his body flopped over backward onto the ground floor.

Lily crept out of the bedroom with wand in hand and very cautiously looked down the stairs just in time to see their two older house-elves holding their hands out and manipulating a gray ethereal form not too unlike a ghost, forcing it into a ball only a little larger than a Snitch. When they finished, Monty reached out and plucked the ball out of the air and disappeared with a pop.

Looking down, Lily saw the youngest, Babby, who was only a few hours older than Harry, look up at her in fear. Putting on her kindest look despite how scared she felt at the moment, she said, "Don't worry Babby, you're not in any trouble."

"Thank you, Mistress."

"Let's go see Fergi and let her heal your cut." Lily gently picked up the young house-elf, carrying him on her hip as she normally did Harry, and went down the stairs, still with her wand in her hand. As she neared the bottom, she cast a stasis charm on the body, hoping that would hold it if _he_ wasn't really dead.

With care, Lily placed the small elf in his mother's arms. "Where's James?" she asked in a forced and tightly control calm, afraid of what she might hear.

"Master James is over in the corner. He's hurt bad, Mistress, but he's alive."

Lily rushed over and found her husband behind the sofa that had been displaced. At least there wasn't blood everywhere she thought. Very carefully, she rolled him over and found that his breathing was so shallow it was almost unnoticeable. As quickly as she could while taking care not to hurt him worse, she started casting healing spells, grateful she was so good in charms.

"Fergi?"

"Yes, Mistress?"

"Where's Monty?"

"He took essence of the bad man and hid it where only we can find it. When bad man died, something strange happened and a ghost that was not a ghost came out. We contained it with elf magic until you have a chance to look at it. Did we do right?" the elf asked with a hint of worry in her voice.

"Yes, that was good, Fergi. Right now, I need you to go get the mirror James uses to talk to Sirius."

The elf popped out and back in a few seconds with the mirror.

Lily took it and called, "Sirius Black!"

A few seconds later, their friend appeared in the mirror. "Lily? What's wrong?"

"We've been betrayed by Pettigrew. Get over here immediately and look around outside for that mangy rat," she ordered.

"How are James and Harry?"

"Harry and I are fine. James was injured but he should fine in a couple of days. Get over here this instant!"

"Coming now," he said as the mirror went dark.

"Master James will live?"

Lily looked up and saw that Monty had returned. "Yes. Did you try to help him?"

"I tried to make him safe, but I thought I had failed," Monty told her, wringing his hands in worry.

"Don't fret, Monty. You and Fergi have helped us again. What is this, the third time you've helped us fight the dark lord?" Lily asked with forced calm as she finished stabilizing the life threatening injuries on her husband, grateful that he was alive - that all three of them were still alive. The minor injuries could be healed later.

"Yes, Mistress."

"We couldn't have done it without you," Lily told the elven couple with deep thanks.

"Looky what I found trying to get away," Sirius crowed as he walked through the open front doorway holding a very stiff rat by the tail.

"Try to repair the front door, will you, Sirius?" she asked their friend, focusing on and using her anger to prevent herself from breaking down at the close call. "I'm going to put James to bed and give him a few potions. Then I have a potion or two for our former friend."

Knowing her husband, she strongly suspected he'd decide to make Peter simply disappear. Considering the traitor had essentially tried to kill them, she didn't have too much of a problem with that idea.

"Fergi? Find out what Babby wants. I think he deserves a very special reward for what he did tonight. That applies to you and Monty too." Lily was strangely pleased with how the evening turned out, despite James's injuries. It looked like they'd found the miracle they needed to end the war and captured the traitor in their group.

As to what they were going to tell Albus about the prophecy being fulfilled, well, she'd probably let James handle that when he was well enough. She didn't think there was any real hurry.

Maybe they'd even suggest to Alastor Moody that now might be a good time to thin the Death Eater ranks a little, before the news got out. She was sure she could make Peter tell her the names of all the Death Eaters he knew, even if she had to keep him prisoner for a month to brew Veritaserum.

Yes, things would become better if she had any say in it.

(end)

(A/N: This is a oneshot that I don't expect to ever expand upon.)


End file.
